Several Stabroek Market Square vendors who over the weekend vacated Parliament View Mall are crying foul over a proposed day/night shift system of selling in the new area.
And it would appear that placing vendors on the respective shifts will be determined by the ‘luck of the draw’.
According to the vendors, ranks from the City Constabulary on Monday informed them of this pending shift policy. One vendor, who identified himself only as Ken, noted that they were told they would have to draw names from a bag in order to decide who would sell during the day and who would vend in the night.
“From the time Parliament View closed down, up to now they ain’t found a permanent spot for (us),” he said. “Now I come out here to get a daily bread, they telling you that you have to push your hand in a bag, (to determine) who will work night or who will work day.”
The man stated that he spent nine months in the Parliament View lot. This was until all vendors vacated the spot following the expiration of the agreement between the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and the lot owner, Hareshnarine “Chiney” Sugrim.
“But when we do come out, we ain’t getting to sell comfortably,” the visibly frustrated man expressed.
According to the man, he has grandchildren who are orphans, and a wife, who all depend on his vending activities for sustenance. He also listed other responsibilities such as rent and taxes.
“They took us off; they are supposed to find somewhere that we can sell and earn,” he lamented. “I can’t earn anything with (this system). And if they come and say that you have to pay revenue, you have to pay it. I believe that this is unfair.”
Winton Bollers, another vendor, expressed confusion over this policy. He was particularly upset over the lack of consultations.
“They want to get us on shift work. Eight of us used to be selling. I thought they would put back the eight (vendors) and the fresh people, find a place for them. It’s not happening that way. They trying to mix us up now and (I) don’t really understand what’s going on,” he said.
It is during the day that potential customers are drawn to the vendors and their stands, he noted. Bollers added that there was little to no business during the night, so the proposed shift system was not feasible. Both Bollers and Ken were adamant that in the years they have been vending, they’ve never heard of such a system.
Meanwhile, another vendor who identified himself only as Colin said that they were told to go back to where they had sold previously. However, he stated that since then it has been a “fight down”. “(Me) and my wife go through the bank to build a house and it’s very hard. How my standards were before, it gone real down. I am a 50-year-old man, It very hard.”
The man issued a plea to officials at City Hall, including the Mayor and Town Clerk, to not implement any such system as a spot to house the vendors has not even been formalised.
“We comply all the time, we clean up, then they move us; we go in (Parliament View) and try, we ain’t making it there, we come out here and start pushing until now. We need a little help from this Government that promise us a good life.”
The imbroglio between the M&CC and the vendors who once dominated Stabroek Square started last year as Guyana’s 50th Independence anniversary approached. A massive clean-up campaign was initiated and vendors were moved from the Stabroek Square to Parliament View Mall, a plot of land so named as it was opposite the Parliament Building.
Sugrim, the plot owner, granted the vendors an extension on their stay in August, until December 31, 2016. Efforts to garner a comment from the M&CC’s Public Relations Officer, Debra Lewis, were futile.
